CHALLENGE: Iraqs homegrown police are vital to achieving security, but they are undertrained and unequipped
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The Prime Minister is moving fast. A mere 24 hours after taking over, Allawi's Cabinet approved three far-reaching security measures. First, it reinstated the death penalty, which Bremer suspended a year ago. It drew up an amnesty plan that is meant to siphon Iraqi nationals from the foreign insurgents. And the Cabinet promulgated a new public-safety law that gives the government broad — some say undemocratic — anti-insurgency powers. The edict stops short of the martial law Allawi had earlier hinted at, but only just. In designated areas — like Fallujah — the government will be able to restrict movement temporarily, set up checkpoints, declare curfews, prohibit public gatherings, set wiretaps and search without warrants. Suspects can be detained for as long as 180 days.
The law cracks down hard on incitement of all kinds — from urging sectarian violence to rebellion, riot and noncompliance. As for Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'ite firebrand who whipped up mayhem in the sect's holy cities after his newspaper was shut down at the end of March, al-Rubaie brushes him aside. "This is a bubble that will burst, and we will see it go away," he says. Al-Sadr has indicated he plans to form a political party to compete in coming Iraqi elections. Meanwhile he is keeping up the heat and late last week preached a sermon urging his followers to continue their resistance against U.S. troops.
Build Up the Muscle
None of those measures will matter, though, if Iraq cannot put enough of its own boots on the ground. After Bremer disbanded Saddam's 400,000-man army in May 2003, he drew up plans for a different kind of security apparatus — a slenderized 35,000-man military, a 40,000-strong Civil Defense Corps (CDC) and 90,000 police. Opting for quantity over quality, the CDC and especially the police took in droves of recruits who remain undertrained, ill equipped and unreliable.
It has been a frustrating experience for men like police colonel Dawood Salman, a 25-year veteran of Baghdad's city force. He recently requested better arms for the Bab al-Sheikh station, where 103 men share five walkie-talkies and none have bulletproof body armor. The American MPs posted as advisers to the station, he says, "laughed at us. They said the guns would be stolen by gangs and used against Americans." Yet he and his men are expected both to crack down on the rampant crime that is terrorizing the city and to face off against insurgents.
Even if the police force is soon beefed up, real security will require nothing less than a functioning military capable of large-scale operations. Allawi reportedly wanted to bring back as many as five old military divisions that would have included a sizable cadre of former Baathist officers. But Saleh said the recall of army men would be done on a "case by case" basis that would involve rehiring good professional soldiers but integrating them into new divisions that would owe their allegiance "to Iraq, not to a regime or person." The Minister of Defense has asked the U.S. to help create a 1,500-man mobile strike force that could be flown in swiftly wherever trouble breaks out.